Paramount Picks Up Sacha Baron Cohen's 'James Bond' Spoof

The "Borat" and "Dictator" creator will write the script with Phil Johnston.

The very things that made James Bond cool -- the girls, the tuxedo, the gadgets -- also made the concept ripe for spoofs and off-shoots.

Jean Dujardin, the Oscar-winning actor from The Artist, starred in the French-made OSS 117 series, and Rowan Atkinson starred in a couple of Johnny English comedies. Even in the early days of the Bond movies, James Coburn ran around in the parodies Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967).

Now Paramount is jumping into the fray, acquiring a pitch from Sacha Baron Cohen and Phil Johnston for an untitled comedy project featuring a James Bond-like spy who “is forced to go on the run with his long-lost brother, a moronic soccer hooligan,” according to the studio.

Baron Cohen might take a role in the project, though that would depend on availability and scheduling.

Baron Cohen has a first-look deal with Paramount and starred in this year's The Dictator for the studio. He is repped by WME.

Johnston wrote the Ed Helms comedy Cedar Rapids; worked on Disney’s Wreck-It-Ralph, which comes out this fall; and co-wrote Nebraska, which is Alexander Payne’s latest endeavor. He is repped by CAA.